New Zealand education leaders announce plan to fix the Auckland teacher crisis. Education groups are calling for urgent increases to teacher pay and for Auckland teachers to have their student loans written off.

A 10-point plan was launched by the NZEI Te Riu Roa, New Zealand Principals Federation, Auckland Primary Principals Association and Waitakere Area Principals Association in Auckland on Wednesday.

The group, representing teachers and principals, wants the Government to adopt and begin implementing the plan within its first 100 days, by the end of the 2017 school year.

"Attracting and retaining a range of great people with diverse backgrounds into teaching in Auckland must be a top priority to ensure that children's learning doesn't suffer," said NZEI Te Riu Roa President Lynda Stuart.

Principals were concerned that if the issue wasn't urgently addressed, many children would have their education compromised due to overcrowding in classrooms or lack of a permanent teacher, Waitakere Area Principals Association President Donald McLean Said.

The ongoing teacher shortage in Auckland has reportedly reached crisis levels with more than 80 percent of the city's principals saying they are struggling to recruit teachers. A third of Auckland schools have given up on advertisingvacancies they have been unable to fill and only 16 percent of Auckland schools indicated they were satisfactorily staffed.

The plan aims to make teaching a satisfying and viablecareer option and also to help children with additional learning and behavioural needs so teachers are empowered to give the best possible education to all their students.

"If the needs of children with learning and behavioural needs continue to be neglected, we will all suffer the loss of their potential," said APPA President Kevin Bush. "There is no single solution to the teacher shortage, " added Cherie Taylor-Patel, an Auckland executive member of NZPF. "But a comprehensive plan that worked in Auckland would also succeed in other parts of the country struggling to attract and retain teachers."

Teachers needed to have smaller classes and more time with each child and needed time to teach rather than over-assessing children, the group said in its plan.

Pay needed to be increased, student loans written off and affordable housing investigated.

New Zealand teacher's salaries were about 80 to 90 percent of similarly-educated professionals in 2014, a recent OECD report said. Their pay progression after 15 years' experience ranged from 1 percent to 9 percent.

Last month, Labour leader Jacinda Ardem said her party had set aside allocations of funding in its education budget to deal with the issue in the short term. She said in the long term, Auckland first needed to address its housing crisis which was driving teachers away.

Education Minister Nikki Kaye also spoke about the issue last month saying there was a definite teacher shortage in certain places around the country and in certain subjects, and she said the Government was doing all it could to address it. "We take it really seriously, and from my perspective if one school has problems getting a teacher that's a crisis for them."

The 10-point Plan:
1. Make class sizes smaller in low decile schools by 2020
2. Write off the student loans of teachers who commit to placement in Auckland schools and other hard-to-staff areas for three years
3. Let teachers teach rather than spending too much time over-assessing children
4. Increase teacher pay
5. Investigate making affordable housing for key public sector employees a priority in Auckland housing projects.
6. Give children with mental health needs access to High Health Needs(HHN) funding immediately
7. Increase the notional hourly rate used for Ongoing Resourcing Scheme(ORS) and HHN funding - which had not changed in eight years - $19 per hour
8. Commit to at least 10 percent increases in resourcing for Learning Support in Budget 2018
9. Fund special needs co-ordinators (SENCOs) to meet the needs of every child in every school in Budget 2018.
10. Value teacher aides and other support staff by committing to a Living Wage by 2019 and a ten-year strategic plan to develop the workforce

What evidence shows that there is a teacher crisis now?

over 80% of principals say they are struggling to recruit teachers

schools have given up on advertising vacancies they have been unable to fill